Civic Space Park opened to the public in April 2009, an urban park in Downtown Phoenix spread out in front of you. Directly across Central Avenue is the main part of the ASU Downtown Campus; the park sits north of the Central Station Valley Metro Rail and bus transfer stations. This ground was once a patchwork of old buildings and parking lots before the City of Phoenix began buying the properties.
The project renovated the A.E. England Building — originally opened in the 1920s as a car dealership — and today it holds retail space and a community meeting room for special events. In the outdoor spaces the designers planned shade: once the trees fully mature, over 70% of the park will be shaded by a combination of trees and shade structures, whose canopy tops carry solar panels that produce a combined 75 kilowatts of power. Your eye is drawn to the centerpiece, Janet Echelman’s US$2.4 million sculpture Her Secret Is Patience, a web of multicolored fiber nets suspended up to 145 feet (44 m) in the air.
At night, ground-mounted colored lighting changes throughout the season. Notice the soaring nets of Her Secret Is Patience suspended above you.